This is a review and detailed measurements of the Marchand XM44-3 3-way Analog Active Crossover. It is on kind loan from a member. This is a modular 3-way system. As configured, it costs US $1,900. So not cheap. Question the owner had was how it compares to a digital crossover which he also send me (review of that later).
Despite being a DIY type of box, there is some style to the XM44-3:
The controls are selectors and feel pretty substantial.
I appreciated the full set of balanced inputs and outputs which I used exclusively for testing:
Internally the unit configurable but you have to buy the modules that way (i.e. are not user selectable):
TI/Bur-brown OPA2134 op-am is used throughout for the implementation which has a stunningly low SINAD of 121 dB. Will we get that kind of performance and transparency? Let's find out.
Crossover Audio Measurements
I treated the unit as a preamplifier and set the test frequency to be in the middle of the midrange band and this is our dashboard:
The pad module is rated for 6 dB but we are getting 3 dB with balanced interconnection with the gain setting at 0.
We have quite a bit of distortion rising up to -75 dB which limits SINAD to same amount at 75 dB. That is a massive fall from what the opamp is rated for and quite a bit worse than the manufacturer spec as well. I played around with levels and it did not make that much of a difference.
In general, you want to have a 10 dB margin for an in-between device to be transparent. This means that if your amplifier has better SINAD than just 65 dB, its performance would be hurt by the XM44. That's quite poor.
Signal to noise ratio is not bad:
Again, the same rule applies here as SINAD.
Here is the frequency response of all three crossovers filters:
Visually they look OK to me. I am too lazy to export them into spreadsheet to confirm.
One odd thing is the low pass one resonating or something past 3 kHz.
Speaker designers among us need to decide if the 30 dB or so attenuation is good enough.
I assume some of you care about phase response so here is that for one band:
Conclusions
This being the first product of its type I am measuring, I am not passing judgement on it. That said, for this kind of price, I expected far better electrical performance. A lot of money seems to have gone to nice assembly, controls and such instead of optimizing the distortion characteristic.
Given the requirement to know in advance what modules you need, and lack of transparency, the Marchand XM44-3 does not seem like a good bet to me.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
The panthers just realized that all this time I had made them walk around with no shoes. So now they all want a pair. No, I am not going out to buy them and will shop online. What I need is money for it. Please donating money using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Despite being a DIY type of box, there is some style to the XM44-3:
The controls are selectors and feel pretty substantial.
I appreciated the full set of balanced inputs and outputs which I used exclusively for testing:
Internally the unit configurable but you have to buy the modules that way (i.e. are not user selectable):
TI/Bur-brown OPA2134 op-am is used throughout for the implementation which has a stunningly low SINAD of 121 dB. Will we get that kind of performance and transparency? Let's find out.
Crossover Audio Measurements
I treated the unit as a preamplifier and set the test frequency to be in the middle of the midrange band and this is our dashboard:
The pad module is rated for 6 dB but we are getting 3 dB with balanced interconnection with the gain setting at 0.
We have quite a bit of distortion rising up to -75 dB which limits SINAD to same amount at 75 dB. That is a massive fall from what the opamp is rated for and quite a bit worse than the manufacturer spec as well. I played around with levels and it did not make that much of a difference.
In general, you want to have a 10 dB margin for an in-between device to be transparent. This means that if your amplifier has better SINAD than just 65 dB, its performance would be hurt by the XM44. That's quite poor.
Signal to noise ratio is not bad:
Again, the same rule applies here as SINAD.
Here is the frequency response of all three crossovers filters:
Visually they look OK to me. I am too lazy to export them into spreadsheet to confirm.
One odd thing is the low pass one resonating or something past 3 kHz.
Speaker designers among us need to decide if the 30 dB or so attenuation is good enough.
I assume some of you care about phase response so here is that for one band:
Conclusions
This being the first product of its type I am measuring, I am not passing judgement on it. That said, for this kind of price, I expected far better electrical performance. A lot of money seems to have gone to nice assembly, controls and such instead of optimizing the distortion characteristic.
Given the requirement to know in advance what modules you need, and lack of transparency, the Marchand XM44-3 does not seem like a good bet to me.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
The panthers just realized that all this time I had made them walk around with no shoes. So now they all want a pair. No, I am not going out to buy them and will shop online. What I need is money for it. Please donating money using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/